Stay-at-home day for daddy

My dear hubby was ill :-( He complained he was sick at about 5.30pm on Monday. So me and Hao Re accompanied him to the clinic. Nothing serious, luckily, he has bad headache, dizziness, and a bit of bloating. He asked the doctor what could have happened. The doctor answered "it's common" and fullstops!

Hubby didn't have the appetite to eat dinner, so we went back home and I quickly cooked some plain porridge for him. He couldn't wait for the porridge, straight away knocked out when arrived home (without taking bath after 1 full working day, yucks!!) . I woke him up when the porridge was ready. He had some porridge, took his medicine, and went back to bed again. And slept throughout. I asked Hao Re to go to the bedroom to 'sayang' baba, and he did, gave hubby a hug and a kiss!

So left with me and Hao Re playing in the living room. Luckily Hao Re was as good as usual, stuck to his routine and slept at 9+pm. So left with me alone. Totally ME time, without the interruption from the Prince and the King!

Hubby was on full day medical leave on Tuesday. Luckily he got well after taking the medicine and some good rest. Hao Re was surprised to see daddy at home waiting for us. He looked at hubby curiously then finally gave daddy a big smile.

That's end hubby's stay-at-home day. Tomorrow is working day again, as per usual. Must keep nagging him to drink more water, must nag until he can't tahan me anymore :-)

It's the day for the KING!!!
As of last week, we bought 3 bonsai (盆栽) of 3 different species, 榆树，常青，茶树. But the story didn't just end there - since we bought them at dirt cheap price, the downside is that 2 of the plants didn't come with the pot :-( So this weekend we were set to go and look for suitable bonsai pots for the new additions to our home.

Actually we have been to a few plant nurseries but we were surprised to find out that none of them sell bonsai pots. Hubby spotted one nursery which says they are specialised in bonsai. We were so glad that finally we were able to find the pots. But when we asked for the price, guess how much they quote for a ugly looking, plain colour, no picture, ceramic pot? It's a whopping $140!!! Gosh, not going to pay this much for that ugly pot.

Finally hubby googled and found 1 source, World Farm, at Yishun area that sells the bonsai pots. We went there on Saturday morning, after having our breakfast. It was an eye opener when we reached there. It's a HUGE nursery! Since it's a super hot day and we didn't intent to get any plant, we didn't walk around the nursery, just went straight to find the pot. And yes, we were lucky, and found what we want! That little Hao Re was excitingly running around the area, touching this and that, while hubby and I were chosing and deciding on which 2 pots to buy. The 2 pots cost us $38.

Next thing will be going to IKEA. Why? Because we need to get some shelf/rack to put the bonsai on. See, that's why I called it a Bonsai Saturday, all dedicated to hubby! Before that, dropped by Anchorpoint for our lunch. Honestly, both hubby and I don't like the food at IKEA at all, we really don't understand why so many people like the food at IKEA. My colleagues said the chicken wings are very nice, but er....... sorry, not for us. Anyway, had our lunch at TCC (for the first time). Food were okay, but pricey. Hao Re was very happy to munch on the garlic bread sticks that came with the soup, and both of us managed to enjoy our lunch (kinda) peacefully.

Walked around IKEA for a very long time, probably close to 2 hours, which was quite unusual for hubby's liking. Having hard time to decide what should we get. You see - we (or rather I) wanted something that is cheap and nice looking and of good material. Do you think we can get what we (or I) wanted at IKEA? No, no luck. Finally I let hubby to decide what he thinks is suitable, before we started to argue about it, and afterall, it's for his bonsai. Eventually hubby bought 2 metal shelves and 1 wooden coffee table.

Went back home and Hao Re knocked out in the car and continue to sleep when we reached home for about 2+ hours, while hubby was busy transferring his bonsai to the new pots, asembled the shelf, and arranged the bonsai nicely on the balcony.

And ta-la......... here is the outcome:

This is the 18 years-old 茶树
The 9 years-old 榆树


The 9 years-old 常青


The 3 bonsai together, at the balcony


Looking out from the living room

Sadly, not a very enjoyable event though :-(

We had been to a baby contest organised by community club (cc) back in September 2008. We actually regretted going to that contest as we thought that it's a waste of time. But when we knew about this contest, we decided to give it a try again. Reason being - Hao Re's teachers insisted that we should enroll Hao Re for this contest, and they would come to be the supporters! So, okay, we thought, since the cc is just about 5 minutes walk from our home and hope Hao Re can get some new exposure, we registered Hao Re for it.

Hao Re woke up at 8am on Sunday morning, which is a new record! Most of the mornings, when either me or hubby woke up and left the bed, he would almost immediatelywake up (he is still co-sleep with us) and that's before 7am. Maybe he was tired as a result of the eventful Saturday?

Anyway, hubby quickly bathed him, and we went down to the newly open "Toast Box" shop for our breakfast. Hao Re refused to take his cereal (same as yesterday). So we gave him some bread and biscuits and he seemd to be satisfied with just that. So we let him be.

Arrived at the cc at about 9.20am while the registration had already started at 9am. We got no. 21. Then we realised we forgot to bring the HealthBook, and so hubby has to back to take (luckily it's so nearby). It's definitely challenging for me to keep an eye on Hao Re with the room full of adults and toddlers. He walked up and down the weighing scale numerous times, while other most of other toddlers just simply refused to stand on it. The lady said can ask Hao Re to be the model, showing his peer how to use the scale :-)

Yeah, I am on the scale, AGAIN!


Waited for about 45 min or so, and it's our turn to go in to the Judge Room. Hao Re was assessed by a lady (a doctor or a nurse???). Don't know. What she did was plot Hao Re's weight against the chart and said he was at about 97 percentile. Then looked at the jab schedule. And that's it. She didn't even take a close look at Hao Re, I was like, huh, then how you judge a baby? Just like that you can tell the baby is healthy and happy???

Do I not look handsome? Daddy made this hairstyle, nice?


After that, it's all waiting and waiting and waiting. From about 10.15am waited until 1pm. Met Hao Re's teachers, have some chats. Hao Re met a very kind gorgor, who shared his toys with Hao Re. We were really thankful for this little boy, if not, really didn't know how to keep him occupied for the few hours.

Playing with gorgor and gorgor's toys


A exhibitor (think is AIA) brought this swing the kids to try out. Hao Re loves it, new experience for him!


Daddy, why you keep moving??!!!


After the MP arrived, they still haven't finished the program on stage. Finally it's time to annouced the results. But both Hao Re and I had started to get impatient. The whole hall was full of people, and I could smell many different kinds of unpleasant smells, which made me wanting to leave the hall immediately. But I told myself, just few more minutes, so I endured. Hao Re was getting very tired and started to stick on me.

Yeah, after the long wait, Hao Re got the consolation prize, including a trophy and a hamper (with milk powder, diaper, towel, baby clothes, etc). No bad. And we quickly left the place and headed back home. My poor darling has already fallen asleep on the way home! He woke up at 2pm for milk (as his lunch) and went back to sleep again until 5pm. Slept for 4 hours, meaning he was really tired out!!!

See how tired was my little boy, sleeping upright holding tight to his trophy!


We would say now we won't want to go for contest like that anymore. But well, who knows, after 12 months, when this contest comes up again, we might still sign up for me. Plus that we will have our baby girl then :-)

It's not a good day, but, well, it's not that bad after all.

What an eventful day!

Hubby went back to his office on Saturday morning, tried to lower his pile of accumulated work. Since I needed to pick up an article from the post office, I decided to bring Hao Re to the CCK library since he likes books so much.

I didn't know the library only open at 11am, that's a bit late, isn't it? While waiting, I let Hao Re play with the Bob the builder, he was happy at that and even did a bit of dancing upon hearing the music, watch the video.

Hao Re and Bob The Builder




My little dancer


While we were in the library, as I expected, this little boy got very excited to see so many books! Initially he chose a few books and flipped through them. After a while, he got bored. And so "invented" his own game. He moved the books, one by one, from one shelf to the other shelf (video below) and mummy was busy putting the books to their original positions :-) He did that for quite some time, and his next game was to push back all the books on the shelves all the way to the wall, trying to be a little librarian arranging the shelves. Again, mummy was busy putting the books to their original positions. After that, I made him sit down and we read a few books together. I have to say, some of the books at the library are very good for toddler, I like them a lot. I borrowed 4 books for Hao Re to bring home. After a while, he got bored, and started to run around (mummy busy chasing after him), and tried to play with whoever wanted to play with him. Later he met a little boy of about his age, they started to baby talk and made contact, after a short while, both of them actually SCREAMED together, and LOUDLY, made the two mummies so embarrassed. So I decided to end the "tour" after spending almost an hour there, and headed back home. I would definitely bring Hao Re back to the library again!

My little librarian


Hao Re took his nap as soon as he reached home, and hubby came back and packed lunch for me. While we were having lunch, Hao Re suddenly cried, and when we went in to the room, we found that he mouth was bleeding, he must have bite his lips while sleeping. Poor thing. He couldn't go back to sleep again, only nap for 45 min.

Later, hubby has the impromptu idea to go to Katong area to buy some bonsai, as he read there was a very good sale on. What special about this trip was that it's the first time we buckled Hao Re in his car seat, and then I didn't sit with him at the back, but to leave him alone at the back while I chit-chat with hubby in the front seat. Surprise, surprise, he was okay with it, didn't "protest" much, made some noise, then stopped, and later even fell asleep on his own! So good. And this makes us to decide that for any relatively long journey in the future, we would just let him sit at the back alone.

Hao Re continued to sleep in his stroller while we were choosing the bonsai. Eventually we bought 3 bonsai plants at $120, which was really a very good buy. All 3 plants are of different species. One is already 18 years old, while the other two were 9 years old. Don't get me wrong, we are not an bonsai expert, but we just want to have some nice plants to freshen our home. These plants are hubby's toy, and he would be the one to take care of the plants.

Our newly bought bonsai plants the three species are 榆树，常青，茶树 (hope I got it right :-P)


After that, we thought why not made a detour to East Coast Park since we were already in the east. Hao Re, once again, enjoyed playing with the sand and the water so much. And he met with a beautiful dog, happily play with the dog and even received a few kisses from the dog! Bad thing was we didn't prepare anything, didn't even bring a spare cloth for him, and surely no towel and no nothing else. Luckily we always keep a jacket in the car, so changed his wet clothes to the jacket, and without any pant on, sexy little thing :-)

Sand play


Insisted to go in to play with the water, got all wet!


Hello, doggy!


Daddy, he just kissed me!


A tired but still excited boy!


Chewing on the stalk of the edamame, nice?!!


Had our dinner at the Sushi Tei at East Coast. Then headed back home. Quickly showered Hao Re to get rid of the sand and sea water. He watched tv, drank his milk and went to his lala land at about 9pm! That's end today's adventure!!!

A closer view of our baby girl and Hao Re received his jabs

I was scheduled for my 20th week detail scan at 3pm on the 20th April 2009 (Monday) since my last visit about a month ago. We brought Hao Re along to TMC as he was due to receive his MMR and chicken pox jabs. I sent him to school in the morning, so that I can have 1 morning of ME time at home :-)

At the very last minutes, I found out that Dr Keoy's clinic does not operate on Monday morning, so I have to bring Hao Re to TMC alone at about noon time, as hubby still has to work in the morning, he only took 0.5 day leave. Hao Re was already tired when I picked him up from his school at about 11.45am since he hasn't taken his morning nap yet. Once I put him into his car seat, he fell asleep immediately, good for me, a very peaceful drive too TMC, which only took about 15 min. Hao Re woke up as soon as I stopped the car, only napped for 15 min.

While at the clinic, oh my, this boy couldn't stop moving, running up and down, playing with everything, trying to act cute in front of other people. I was just sitting there observing him, let him explore on his own, and only went up to him when I think he needed some controls. After about 30 min wait, it's our turn (hubby couldn't make it on time, sadly). Hao Re received the 2 jabs, and he didn't cry at all, just made a few eh eh sounds when the needles poked through his buttock. When Dr Keoy offered him biscuits, he actually REFUSED it (I have never seen him refusing food so far), as if to protest that "you poked me, you are not my friend, I don't want your biscuits". Cute!

As of the health book record - Hao Re weighs 11.8kg, 79cm height, and head circumference of 50cm, of 90-, 75- and 95-percentile, respectively.

Met hubby for lunch at the nearby chicken rice restaurant, then went to the nearby florists to source for the pot for our newly bought bonsai. But too bad, can't get what we want. One shop is actually specialised in bonsai, but they quoted $140 for a simple-and-ugly-looking pot! Duh, that' s more expensive than the bonsai itself.

Went back to TMC for my detail scan. All went well. Dr Chang commented baby is growing very well, and all the major organs are in good shape. So no worries at all! Initially Hao Re and hubby went in to the room with me, but Hao Re made a lot of noise and kept wanting me to carry (while I was lying down), so hubby has to drag him out of the room, and so missed the second half of the scan. But lucky we have all the images copied onto a CD. After that, waited for Dr Tan for about 1 hour. She checked my blood pressure and listened to baby's heartbeat. Again, hubby and Hao Re didn't come into the room. And that's wrap up today's checking. Next visit will be on the 14th May, a bit earlier than 1 month, as Dr Tan will be on long leave from 16th May onwards.

The right hand photo showing my girl's privy


My little girl's spine


My girl's little feet


My girl's little hands


The poor Hao Re only have the chance to nap when we were in the car, which was already closed to 5pm! He didn't even wake up when I carried up from the car to our house. I then woke him up at 7pm. He was reluctant to be waken, but I have to, if not, he might not want to go to bed at the usual bedtime. Cooked beehoon for our dinner, and played with Hao Re for a while. Luckily Hao Re still went to bed at the usual 9pm+. But then, I was too tired to do anything else, I also knocked out soon after that, couldn't even keep myself up to prepare the fruits for hubby, sorry :-( Promise will prepare fruit for you tomorrow :-)

Watch the video clips and you know why I say this :-)

Enjoy watching!!!

2nd prize winner - Kam Hao Re

The Happy Healthy Baby Contest organized by the LiveWell Baby magazine was held in February, and we have already received many well wishes and kind words from friends and relatives, after I posted about the contest back in February.

Finally, the new issue of the LiveWell Baby magazine (April/May09, vol 10) is out. And of course, the editor has dedicated a few pages to report this event. Quickly grabbed a copy from Kiddy's Palace and so happy to see Hao Re's picture on magazine. Too bad hubby was busy taking photos at that time, so didn't join us to get on to the stage to receive the prize.



Later, I learned from a mummy that the same contest was reported on the LiveWell magazine (March-April Issue, vol 24). Quickly bought a copy from the newsstand, and here it goes:



I will continue to be a faithful reader of the LiveWell Baby magazine, and hi, it's free, afterall :-)

Visit to the Singapore Zoo on the Easter Sunday

Right, we went to the Zoo, again! This time, as proud members of the Zoo. Just received the membership card a few days ago. The Singapore Zoo will be the place where we frequently visit for the next few months, since it's only about 10 min drive away from our house, and Hao Re loves seeing the animals!

But today was not a good day for us also. As soon as we finished our breakfast at the Ah Meng Coffee Shop in front of the zoo, it started to rain drizzle. We were not bothered by the drizzle and continued our exploration. Hao Re was sitting in his stroller with a small hood to shed off the rain. Me and hubby walked under the drizzle, kind of romantic, huh!

But to be honest, though it's only drizzling, it did spolit our mood. So didn't see much, it was feeding time for the many different types of monkey, so we just watched that. It's actually nice to see so many different types of beautiful monkeys, as for the past 2 trips, when we were trying to search for the monkeys, they were all hiding, can see none of them. Only during the feeding time, they all showed up.

After that, went to have a drink at the restaurant, then decided to head home. As soon as we were about to leave the zoo, the rain stopped. Duh! Oh well, didn't bother to turn back, we can always come the other times. So it's bye-bye to all the animals, after spent about 1 hour there.

Took some pretty nice pictures to show:

Hao Re and the mow-mow, while we were having our breakfast


Hao Re likes daddy's cap


Guess what he is doing??? Yes, you are right, he is doing BIG BUSINESS, yuck!
(p/s: no matter where he is, at home, at school or when we are out, he has to squad down to this position to bangsai :-))


We are having our drinks, he is enjoying his raisins


Daddy and son look-a-like?


This little boy didn't have his nap until 4pm!!! Then he suddenly woke up and cried at about 5pm. I thought he had a nightmare, so I soothed him back to sleep again. Only after he fell asleep, then I found out he had pooped (a lot!), and that's probably why he woke up. Cleaned his buttock but that woke him up again. He was very angry, but somehow managed to soothed him back to sleep. He slept soundly after that, until I woke him up at 6.30pm. He was very tired.

The rest of the day just spent at home. Didn't even go out for din ner. Cooked Japanese sweet potato for Hao Re, and he finished a very big bowl (the portion is more than those you buy a bowl of sweet potato dessert from the kopitiam!!!). While hubby was feeding him, I cooked noodle for our dinner. When we were having the noodle, Hao Re didn't even bother to come near us to ask for us, think his stomach was too full of the sweet potato :-)

Long weekend well spent!

.....where we spent our Good Easter Friday and Saturday

All I wanted, was to get away from this little island for a breather. Most importantly, is for hubby to take a break, a proper break without touching the PC, not to do any work and not to read anything for 2 days, he really need some good rest.

It's a last minute thingy, so we could only do a short getaway at one of the nearby places. I didn't want to travel too extensively, with my boy in tow, and my girl in the tummy. Thought of Batam/Bintan, but couldn't make myself interested enough to go. Malaysia was the only choice. KL is a bit to far and probably won't get to relax in the buzzling big city; Malacca was nice, but didn't feel like going. So left with JB. Desaru beach would be nice, but the route to Desaru is not that pleasant (can still vaguely remember since the last time we went about 10 years ago).

So finally decided on this Pulai Spring Resort at Skudai, only about 45 drive from home! Came across this resort by seaching on the internet. Sounds pretty good to me, and price is reasonable. So I booked a room, but only for 1 night, the Friday night, as I thought theremight be not enough things for us to do there if we were to stay longer.

Not a good start though. We knew it's going to be heavy traffic, and on the LTA camera it showed the Causeway was already very congested. So we used the 2nd link. Cleared Singapore custom in about 15 min time, not too bad we think. But as soon as we drove out from the custom, oh my godness, the queue already started from there, literally jam from that end of the bridge to this end of the bridge! Took us a little bit more than 2 hours to clear. Luckily Hao Re fell asleep after an hour, so the last hour spent in the car having a nice and non disrupted chat with hubby, not that bad after all :-)

Sleeping soundly in his car seat


The resort was just beside the Taman University, where hubby lived for 1-2 years. We went to Taman University first, as hubby craved for the A&W. But guess what? The A&W has closed down, it says it has relocated to Bukit Indah (the new Jaya Jusco near 2nd link). What a big disappointment to hubby :-( So just stepped in to one of the coffee shops to have our lunch. Ordered Penang prawn noodle (for me), wanton mee (for Hao Re) and the Hakka "lui cha fan" (for hubby). All not bad. Hao Re had some wanton mee and the left over went in to our tummy.

Reached the resort at about 3pm, just the right time for checking in. Felt pretty comfortable when seeing the resort. Checked in to our room, pretty good also, we booked a studio apartment and it's pretty spacious, clean and well equipped with all the basic necessities.

Good day, everyone!


The funny thing was Hao Re was so excited after went in to the room. Walk/run non-stop, and "talk" a lot! Just to get him to be so happy and excited for these 10-15 min or so, it's all worth the money and the 2 hours traffic jam at the 2nd link :-) After resting for a while, we were ready to head to the swimming pool. Initial plan was for me to play with Hao Re and hubby to get a massage at the same time. But again, it's not our day today, the 3rd dissappointment - started to rain, and the massage centre was fully booked. So we could do nothing :-(

Trying out the bed


Doing a superman stunt?!!


Walked around the resort (those sheltered part) and sat down to have a drink and some chips. And that's all we could do for the whole afternoon, as it rained non-stop. Then went back to the room, took shower and the rain finally stopped. So we walked around the resort again (those unsheltered part) and then went for our dinner at the Chinese restaurant. The ambient of the restaurant was pretty good, food were pretty nice, but we made the wrong choice - we went for a-la-carte-eat-all-you-can buffet. It was supposed to be a good offer, but this restaurant really means it when they say they are going to charge you if you don't finish the food. We left about half a plate of fried rice, and they wanted to charge us for that, so hubby has to finish it all. Too streesful to eat like that. If we were to have the dinner without chosing the buffet option, I think we would have enjoyed it a lot more. And the service staff, not very impressive.

Headed back to the room, and watched tv. Hao Re knocked out at about 9.30pm and slept pretty soundly, only woke up once the whole night.

The 2 TV addicts, one at each end, not to disrupt each other :-)


The next morning, went to have our breakfast. The spread of the buffet breakfast was pretty good, but didn't taste very good. And it's fully packed with people, the restaurant was so noisy, like in a wet market. After that went back to the room and changed to our swimming suits. Finally Hao Re's long wait was ended as he finally got to go in to the pool!

Milk (breakfast) time


Hao Re, as usual, had great fun playing in the pool. He was attracted by the toys/floats owed by other children, and wanted to get hold of the toys/floats. And he wanted to play with other kids also. The swimming pool was not particular nice, the water was not that clean, and the chlorine smell was pretty horrible. Just let Hao Re played for about 30 min or so. Went back to the room, took shower and said bye-bye to the resort at about 11am.

Overall, the trip met my aim - hubby did get to relax for the 2 days (but too bad he didn't get the chance to try the massage). And Hao Re was very happy throughout the stay. So, considered a good trip. Will we go back again? Very likely not. To be fair, the resort is pretty well kept (for Malaysia standard) and reasonable comfortable, but if we don't golf, there is really nothing much to do. We shall explore other places next time round.

Some photos taken just before we left:

Hao Re: "ball, ball!!!"


Mummy, put me down!


Mummy, where is my mei-mei, I wanna kiss her!


Headed to IKEA straight from JB as hubby wanted to get a shelf for Hao Re to store his toys and books. Hubby said it's neater this way and can train Hao Re to put back his toys onto the shelf after playing with them (he did that very well at school, didn't blog about this as didn't manage to video a good clip to show). I thought it's a great idea too, as this way, all the toys are laid in front of Hao Re, so he gets to play with many different toys, comparing to when we keep the toys inside boxes, and hope this helps to stimulate him more.

I keep thinking these days, do we have enough for Hao Re to do or to learn? It is now the very important stage for toddler this age to learn new things. At times, I am wondering do we do enough to stimulate his senses and help him to develop? I know his motor skills have developed very well. But is that all? Do I miss out anything else? Hmmmm, maybe it's time for me to do some reading.......... okay, okay, can't be lazy, must start reading.

Hao Re's new shelf for his toys. Do you like this?


For comparison - Hao Re's toys cluster before the shelf


After IKEA, went to China Town to have the frog leg porridge, yummy! But not enough to fill my stomach, so proceed to have the dessert "tang shui". I have the sesame crush ice + red bean. Hubby has the yam paste. Both were very good, should go back again!

That's our Good Easter Friday and Saturday. Good Easter Sunday will be another coming post, stay tune!

Daddy's wish accomplished!

Yes, you hear it right! We are expecting a baby GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Most importantly, the amniocentesis result turned out fine, baby is normal. Hurray! Will post to karyotype of our girl, if I do get a copy from my gynae, as what she promised me. So now, no more worries, and I am going to enjoy my pregnancy even more. The next visit to gynae will be on 20th this month, will be doing the detailed scan, so we will have a closer look to our girl then!

Hubby is very happy, and so am I, and I think Hao Re will be very happy to have a little sister to play with and be a proud gorgor. Girl-girl, be good, take more nutrition from mummy and grow healthily, ya!

(p/s: Hubby - time to crack your brain and think a name for our girl!)

Topic of today is about sleeping zzzzzz............

I last wrote about the same topic, sleeping issue, on 10th Feb, less than a month ago. Since then, 2 problems continue to exist at night:

1) Hao Re refuses to go to the bedroom when it's time for him to sleep
2) Continue to wake up 1-3 times every night, not for milk, but just for comfort.

For problem no. 1, I continued to battle with him, i.e., carried him to the bedroom even he screamed/shouted/cried (fake one)/etc at about 9-10pm when he showed signs of tiredness. Most of the time, he would have calmed down after finishing his milk and slept. But for a few (bad) nights, he protested, and insisted he wanted to go out of the bedroom, and guess what, yes, I gave up and let him go out and play until he was tired and willing to sleep again, at about 11pm.

But since last week, I stopped the battle, it started to make me stress to have to hear him cry every night, albeit a fake cry. I have worked out a different way, a no struggle way, a more peaceful way, thus no screaming and no crying from Hao Re, so hubby and I are happier. What I do now is, when he starts to get tired, usually about 9pm, we switch the tv to cartoon channel, he would watch for 15-30min, then surely would demand for milk. I brought him to the kitchen and prepare his milk together. Then we don't go to bedroom, we go back to the living room. Drink his milk while watching tv. After a few minutes, I (or hubby if he is around) would switch off all the lights, then switch off the tv also. Quiet and dark. If hubby is around, he has to pretend he has fall asleep, lying on the other sofa. This way, Hao Re would obediently finish his milk then sleep. No struggling at all :-) I will continue to do this as long as it still works for Hao Re.

(p/s: Since a couple of months back, he has this habit to "supervise" how I prepare his milk - he would sit on the kitchen bench and hold the cover of the milk bottle, watch me pouring water and scooping the milk powder, and he would be the one who put the cover on top of the bottle and clap his hand. Cute, right?)

While for problem no. 2, the solution is simple, though not ideal, i.e., co-sleeping. With my growing tummy, it becomes more and more challenging to get Hao Re out of the cot, especially when he woke up in the middle of the night. And we scared it might hurt the baby as I need to use a lot of force carrying him out (he is almost 12kg now!). Yes, it works. For most of the nights, he is able to sleep through without waking at all. Some nights, he might wake up once for water (he really drinks a lot, meaning he is actually thristy?). So, ends up, Hao Re, hubby and I are able to have good night sleeps, though it's a bit squeezy for the 3 of us on a queen size bed. We have been co-sleeping with Hao Re for a few weeks already. I actually like it a lot :-) Hubby has no complain. And of course Hao Re likes it too (evidence - he can now sleep soundly).

That's our immediate solutions for now. I always keep telling/reminding myself that Hao Re is forever changing. So I look forward to his next wave of change, whereby he would be able to sleep on his own and without waking up at night?!!! Yes, I know, I am too optimistic :=)

For the nap times - during weekends, he only naps one time a day, for 1-2 hours. But in school, still takes 2 naps per day, for 3-4 hours. I wonder how this little guy adjust himself so well to two totally different schedule. Not only sleeping schedule, the meal schedule is also very different for weekdays and weekends. At school, he eats 3x solid and drinks 2x milk, plus snack when arrives home and another 1x milk. While for the weekends, he only eats 2x solid, 2x milk and snack. Kids are easily adapt to different enviroment, right?

I strongly believe sufficent qualtiy sleep helps to develop better immune system and improve health in general.